Chapter 14: Shooting Star

“HAYAT YILDIZI” meant “Life Star.”

That wasn't the strange thing about it; it was the shooting star that was painted beside it. I was struck by the picture, thinking about asking Emre but feeling embarrassed about presuming something. 

Could it be? Or was I being ridiculous? 

Emre told me that we were going to swim towards the shore from the other side of the yacht because he wanted to show me something, and I left the observation at the back of my mind.

I went along with him, and we swam towards shore. After a while, I started getting tired. My arms had gotten sore because I hadn't done this in a long while and I was panting. 

Damn, I was out of shape.

"Emre," I panted, "He was a few paces in front of me.

He turned back to me, evidently realizing that I was getting tired because he came back to me, put his arm around my waist, and half hauled me as he swam supporting me the rest of the way. 

We came up to the shore, and I felt the sand around my ankles. I breathed a sigh of relief when we came to chest level water.

I couldn't see anyone on the shore and realized that we'd come a long way, now on the opposite side from where everyone else had been.

We were both standing there breathing hard now; Emre's hand was still around my waist.

Our bodies were barely touching each other, but I could feel Emre's heat branding me.

He swiped back his hair with his other hand. One strand was still in his eye. I reached up and drew it up and ran my hand through his hair. 

This was the first time I'd voluntarily touched him. I guess he realized the same thing because he searched my eyes for a second, and then his mouth took mine, hot and demanding.

It was like the kiss in his room but hotter, better, wetter.

His tongue stroked mine and I almost lost myself. I moaned into his mouth and pressed myself closer, as close as I could get.

Emre tore his mouth away, and then his hands were in my hair. He pulled my hairband off and threw it, freeing my hair and running both his hands through it.

I pulled his mouth back to mine and sucked his lower lip, turning up the heat until I was burning.

His hand went to my back and down, pulling my hips into his, and I gasped as I felt him fully aroused.

I lost my head completely, trembling and needing more. 

My hands held on for dear life as I was ravished by Emre's mouth and hands. His hand were stroking my body, molding and pressing me into him until we could have been one body.

His mouth had moved down to my neck, and he pressed open-mouthed kisses down the length of it. I arched my neck as he placed his mouth underneath my ear and sucked hard on it for a few seconds.

Ow. Had he just given me a hickey?

Oh my God.

I pushed him back, my hand on my neck.

I fell down, my head going underneath. I sputtered until strong arms caught me and hauled me back up. 

I pushed him away again, wading out towards the shore.

"Sarah, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" I was shouting back as I moved towards the white sand, "You gave me a hickey Emre!"

Emre just grinned, following along behind me, coming out of the water looking so hot, it should've been illegal.

"Are we in high school?" I asked as I sat down on the beach, my feet barely touching the water.

"Well, you bit my lip," he replied, "You could say we're both in high school right now, the way we're secretly messing around."

I didn't want to admit that he had a point, and so I just stared ahead, refusing to acknowledge his presence.

"You can bite me again if you think you aren't even yet," he said, rubbing his thumb over his lower lip. God had given him great lips, and so I couldn't do anything but pay homage to them. I didn't hold this against myself.

"Emre, my point is how am I going to hide this?" I groaned in frustration.

"Don't."

"I have a boyfriend."

"I don't consider him your boyfriend; you shouldn't either." He stated it like a fact.

My mouth fell open in shock.

"I can't believe you said that"

"Do you kiss him like you just kissed me? Do you go as crazy for him?" He was angry now.

"I don't." He continued, "You are the only one who burns me up like this, and I'm not ashamed to admit it to anyone."

I didn't reply. I couldn't say anything which would not be a lie.

He reached out and settled my hair around the hickey.

"There, it's hidden. You can just hide it from everyone now." Like our past and everything else. He didn't say it, but it was in the air between us.

We were quiet for a while, both of us thinking about what was unsaid but couldn't be said either. I couldn't go back to him, not that he was asking me to. I didn't even know what we were doing together.

Heck, I wasn't even sure that I was cheating on my boyfriend or that he was cheating on me. Were we even together?

I looked at Emre and remembered something about the yacht. 

"Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead." His tone was surly.

"Why did you name your ship Hayat Yıldızı?"

He was silent for a while, his hand in the white sand picking up handfuls and filtering them out of his fingers.

It didn't seem like a tough question to me, and yet a tiny voice in my mind said that what I had assumed wasn't so far off.

"The shooting star…" 

"Don't you already know?" He cut me off and looked at me.

I shook my head.

"You want to hear it, right?"

I didn't say anything.

He pointed down towards his left ankle and twisted it, causing me to gasp.

There it was, the image of a shooting star tattooed on his ankle.

This wouldn't ordinarily be anything special, except… 

That I had the exact same tattoo on my left ankle.

This was what I'd assumed, thinking I'd presumed too much, except I'd been wrong.

I'd assumed too little.

My heart was now free to weave all its hopeful fantasies while my head was busy listing all the reasons we couldn't be together.

Emre tapped my foot with his, and I twisted my ankle too, our tattoos lining up together, almost mirror images.